Weeks 14 &15, France

Christmas has thrown me behind schedule a little, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our studies in France. We had fun playing our geography game again.

We learned about French impressionist art and the girls painted their own waterlily picture like Monet.

We learned about how the French make perfumed soap. The girls had lots of fun making their own soap!

We made models of the Eiffel Tower from toothpicks and marshmallows. They didn't stay up too well, but the girls had fun making them!

We made crepes and filled them with nutella... a yummy french breakfast!

The girls (and Baxter!) watched Beauty and the Beast one afternoon. They picked out several french words in the movie - it was fun watching them recognize them.

Here are the lapbooks we made all about France. We learned about French colors, numbers, artists, flag, and tourist sights.

In other school news... Maryella learned all about compound words and how to count syllables. This was a really cute game that came with her All About Reading curriculum. She had to "cut" the vegetables between the words.

Maryella also had a great time with a game in her Writing Strands curriculum. She had to start with a basic sentence and then add extra adjectives and descriptions to make the sentence more interesting. She could have done hundreds of these if we had the time!

We also finished reading a book together, Candymakers, by Wendy Mass (What a great book! We loved it!) and made chocolate pizza to celebrate. The girls also designed their own candy and drew pictures of it but I think I forgot to take pictures of those.

Weeks 12 & 13 - Norway

Our last three weeks have been pretty busy! We studied Norway for a week and then it was time for Thanksgiving break. We went to Tampa and had a wonderful time with family there. Unfortunately, this ended up being the only picture we took - how did that happen? Oops!

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Jeff's cousin's house and spent Friday doing some shopping for Christmas. When we got back home, we finished our Norway studies in about 3 days and then we left to go camping at Otter Springs. It was so much fun! It's such a blessing to spend time together like that as a family.

Now on to our school pictures! We learned about some of the people who live in northern Norway called the Lapps. They are nomads and typically wear bright blue clothes with patterns of red and yellow. Our curriculum suggested taking a square of blue felt and putting yellow and red triangles on it. That was fine, but I knew my girls would much rather make something they could actually use. I made some simple blue dresses and they got to work decorating them. I think this has been their favorite activity so far!

They have LOVED playing with their Barbies in the new dresses!

I found a puzzle at the dollar store that was a row of houses in the Netherlands. I was excited about it and figured we'd put it together during our 3 weeks.

The girls enjoyed it, but of course, Jeff and I ended up doing most of it. When it was all finished, we realized that Baxter had sneaked a few puzzle piece snacks along the way.

We also studied a Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch. He painted The Scream. We read about him and some of the background about his painting. Then we attempted to draw our own scream pictures. I took photos of the girls "screaming" and printed them on a website that turns your photo into a coloring page. They drew their pictures with oil pastels and then glued their face on top. They turned out SO good! I was really impressed!

Here is Annlee's scream lapbook piece

We learned about a Norwegian art style called rosemaling. The girls loved painting their own little boxes!

We made potato soup for lunch one day - a common Norwegian meal. It was quite yummy! When I heard that many Norwegians have boiled potatoes nearly everyday, I almost decided to pack my bags! Judging from their reactions to the soup, I think the girls felt the same way! (Check out my homemade croutons made from Jeff's homemade bread - YUM!)

Here are our Norway lapbooks we made during our "visit" there.

We studied a Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. We listened to music he wrote for the Peer Gynt Suite and the girls drew what their "wild things" would be. This is Annlee's lapbook monster.

We learned about Vikings and saw how to write our names in Runes.

We learned how to count in Norwegian

And we learned some interesting facts about Norway t

In science, we went a little more in depth studying forests and what happens in the wintertime. I decided to let the girls get a bit more "hands on" when we were talking about coniferous trees. We took a look inside of some pinecones! Check out those giant ones that some of the preschool teachers at our church gave us!

We cut one in half just fine but it was an old pinecone and all the seeds were gone already. I decided to try to cut open one of the pinecones that was still closed up. That didn't go as well. I spared you a picture without the bandaid - you are welcome.

Jeff and his tools came to the rescue for us and we got to see inside a pinecone!

I don't know if you can tell, but the seeds are those "helicopter seeds". That's what we've always called them. I never knew that!

To go along with our winter in the forest studies, I thought it was a good time to read them a poem by one of my favorites poets - Robert Frost. I read "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" while they drew pictures of a winter forest scene. This is what Kaylin drew - I thought it was really good!

In other school time, we just kept plugging along with our regular studies. Maryella and I have found the game Silly Sentences and really love it! We play it at least once a week, typically.